Marathon Profile: Jesse and Carolyn Edsell-Vetter Celebrate 10-Year Anniversaries by Running

The 117th running of the Boston Marathon takes place April 15, and this week we'll be posting profiles of local runners who are taking on the marathon this year—and supporting good causes while they're at it.

Most of these runners shared their stories here, and the words below are their words. If you're running the Boston Marathon this year, feel free to share your story.

More profiles:

• Dani Holmes-Kirk Runs for Stroke Awareness

Name: Jesse and Carolyn Edsell-Vetter

Age: 37

Marathon experience: This year's Boston Marathon will be Jesse's 6th marathon and Carolyn's 2nd Marathon. In addition, our 7-year-old is running his first 5k.

Reason for running: We are running to raise $20,000 for Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership (MBHP). 2013 marks a number of important 10s in our lives—10 years of marriage, 10 years of Jesse's employment at MBHP and 10 years since Jesse's 14th and final knee surgery.

MBHP's clients are some of the most vulnerable, difficult to house populations in Somerville and the 29 other cities/towns served by MBHP. The funds raised through our Boston Marathon Team will have us to provide intensive case management, emergency housing and other resources for hundreds of individuals and families over the past few years.

Our 7-year-old has decided to run his first 5k in Davis Square on Mother's Day to raise an additional $500 for MBHP. He wants to make sure that every kid in our service area has a place to call home.

You can donate to Jesse at http://bit.ly/JEVruns and Carolyn at http://bit.ly/CEVruns

Training tip: Boston's course is difficult not because of Heartbreak Hill but because of the downhills that make up much of the course. Prepare for those downhills by running downhill repeats.